Video: Video and audio of President Barack Obama talking directly to the camera, dressed casually in a shirt and blue jacket. Scenes of Americans in schools and at work also are flashed.

Script: “Those ads taking my words about small business out of context -- they’re flat out wrong. Of course Americans build their own businesses. Every day, hard-working people sacrifice to meet a payroll, create jobs, and make our economy run. And what I said was that we need to stand behind them, as America always has. By investing in education and training, roads and bridges, research and technology. I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message because I believe we’re all in this together.’’

Analysis: For the first time in weeks, Obama is on the defensive over a speech he delivered earlier this month in Virginia. Obama created this furor when he said: “If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.’’ So now Obama is forced to spend time explaining what he meant to say, never a good position to be in during a campaign.

It is true that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney – in his own attack ad -- focused on the one sentence and ignored the rest of the speech. In that sense, Romney can be accused of taking a sentence out of context.

So, you judge. Here is what Obama actually said: “Look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own . . . I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.’’

“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet. The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.’’

Taken in context, Obama was trying, without much success, to make a point emphasized in 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he said that “wealth in the modern world does not come merely from individual effort; it results from a combination of individual effort and of the manifold uses to which the community puts that effort. The individual does not create the product of his industry with his own hands; he utilizes the many processes and forces of mass production to meet the demands of a national and international market.’’

Nor were Obama’s remarks just a slip of the tongue. Instead, he clearly based his address on remarks last year by Elizabeth Warren, a onetime Obama consumer aide and now the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. “You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for . . . Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

Hidden by the intense charges and counter-charges is a serious debate that has divided the two major parties for decades. Republicans believe that given personal freedom, the individual is responsible for his or her success. By contrast, Democrats have long argued that individual success is at least partly attributable to a larger role by society.

The Romney campaign, sensing that it has put Obama on the defensive, sought to keep up the pressure today by scheduling so-called “We did build this” events in Toledo and Columbus “to allow Ohio small business owners the opportunity to respond to President Obama’s insulting claim,” according to a Romney press release.